too old for dreads

We’re now 10,700 miles from home in a place that today, in the pouring rain, looks remarkably like home. 

It’s exciting to be in Tasmania; even though it feels like we’re in the South West of England. 

We went over the River Tamar, past Exeter, into Dorset, left at Bridport and on to Launceston. Haven’t spotted a Cornish pasty or a cream tea yet but there’s still time. 

While it’s an Australian state it already feels very different to the mainland and the people here are very proud of where they live; there are lots of Tassie products everywhere. Given how far it is from anywhere, reducing shipping costs is definitely a good thing (anything that keeps the prices down for us Brits is a very good thing; it’s expensive for us in Australia at the moment and it feels like the prices are going up in front of our eyes. Bet the folk in the UK who voted for Brexit didn’t expect that).

We’re heading out today to the east coast of Tassie for a three day hike along the Bay of Fires (thanks to Sue for the recommendation) with a great company called Life’s an Adventure. 

We realised what a small place this is when we bumped in to the MD of Life’s an Adventure on the short flight to Launceston from Sydney – very handy as we then got a lift into town. He seemed to know everyone on the plane and the town has a ‘one big family’ feel to it. You really do get the sense that everyone knows everyone else round here. 

People round here are incredibly friendly. You just need to start walking in the general direction of a zebra crossing and the cars immediately stop, let you reach the crossing, cross and then don’t rev their engines with impatience. Really very refreshing. We asked a woman yesterday afternoon where the Woolies store was in Launceston; she stopped, said hi, took us there and almost came in with us. All done with a lovely smile. It was pretty much the same in Sydney. People have got time and time for you. They’re interested in you and your story. I fear we’ve lost that for the most part in the UK. It’s time for us to change and time we slowed down.

Back to the trek. There are six of us in a minibus (two GPs and two academics – all from Sydney and all lovely people and very friendly – and us) heading east with two guides. 

We’re staying in a lodge (they call it a shack) on the beach and doing a 15-20km walk from there each day. We’re going to be well off the grid and we can’t wait. 

Now we haven’t got the right kit for this weather – we didn’t book rain – so we invested in technical ponchos (!) as that was about the only thing we could afford in the outdoor shops of Launceston (thanks to Kathmandu of Launceston). Hopefully that will keep us dry and warm. And more optimistically, maybe the sun will make an appearance. It’s been a wet spring in Tassie and they’re all looking forward to some good weather.

The coastline here is incredibly beautiful. White sand beach as far as the eye can see with crashing green-blue waves, no-one else around for miles and fresh air to fill the lungs and clear the head. We walked for hours today along the beach and never tired of each new bay as we snaked along the Tassie coastline. The only thing we need to do now is dry our walking shoes so we can do it all again tomorrow. 

As ever with a trek like this it’s great to meet new people, hear their story and share a Boags with them all later. Apparently it’s important in Tassie to choose the right beer; Boags if you’re in or near Launceston and Cascade if you’re near Hobart. I wonder where the line is … maybe they just drink both in the middle of the state. 

We’ve got the fire lit, the wine flowing and a load of good conversation across the dinner table. It’s hard to think we only met these people this morning. 

There is complete and utter silence and darkness outside. We’re in the middle of nowhere on the edge of Tasmania and if that doesn’t clear the head, then nothing will. 

Today it was Tasmania 1 : Us 0. The weather has beaten us. 

We decided to switch the direction of the walk so we weren’t going to be walking straight in to the wind. That was a good move; the wind quickly picked up to over 60kmh as a storm from the Southern Ocean blew in. We were very quickly soaked, frozen and our technical ponchos really weren’t up to the job. We walked for 3.5 hours until we called it a day. We’re now drying out in front of the fire. 

More extremes, more contrasts and more fantastic experiences- even if this one isn’t quite what we were hoping for. What an adventure. We’re going to hunker down and start on the Tassie Pinot! 

Today has been a different story. The sun has shone and we’ve seen the beautiful coastline in all its glory.